I’m doing a separate note on this so it is one place, and to make it easier as I believe we are sharing information with Princess Cleophas Allockra. Descriptions are my own, based on what we have found out so far. Dusk may be able to add more.

The Pantheon of the Seven, who probably have a proper name which I don’t know, are all still alive apart from Evaristus who was completely consumed by Rachane. Some of them have left remnants of themselves within the Miere anomalies, these appear as ribbons or thread. Their world was destroyed, along with everyone on it, and the small part we found within the first anomaly we investigated was one of the surviving shards, there are others.

They have been described in a fragment of lore recovered by Princess Allockra as follows :-

seven were born then on the echoes of the word in destruction's wake

After yesterday, we know the Seven to consist of the following : -

Chibueze - the right to rule. She was an evil deity, her remnants were red threads. She was associated with dominion (evil spirits and bronze magics), but concerned to protect those who she deemed worthy of her protection – in the instance where we encountered one of her remnants, this involved protecting Chisomo from Rachane. There is some suggestion from the way her altar spirit behaved that this was “worthy” in a sense of divinely invested power rather than temporal title or position, but it is not entirely clear.

Chisomo – small good deeds. He was a goodly deity, her remnants were white threads. We have previously encountered an angel of Chisomo, Alinafe, who is now in Port Miere helping the people there. I think it would be a good idea if the remnant of Chisomo could be brought to him, to see if it can somehow strengthen him in what he is doing.

Tinashe. Some of our group spoke with an angel of Tinashe before Rachane arrived, but I don’t know what that conversation involved, or what her purview was as a divinity. Chibueze’s remnant had said that Tinashe did something, she wasn’t sure what, to enable the rest of the pantheon to escape Rachane when their world was destroyed.

Rachane – the Devourer. Rachane is the creature that needs to corrupt to survive, and which has been called upon by Louhi (who is empowered by Certizal / SOFE). His remnants are black ribbons which will try and twist and corrupt anyone touching them. Rachane is, we think, within Port Miere (although was not showing on the Miere map), in his actual manifest form, rather than as a remnant. He has the scent of Chisomo and Chibueze and is trying to track them down and devour them. He has already devoured Evaristus.

Evaristus – luck. Evaristus has been consumed by Rachane and is destroyed, the remnants of his power have been corrupted by Rachane. One such remnant was held by the incredibly annoying fox-creatures, and has now been recovered by us (resolving that anomaly), it was silver in colour.

Kurshid – the Enkindled, the fires of the sun. Kurshid was an evil deity, her purview was the sun in its destructive form, burning heat, the fires of destruction, and so on.

The Watcher of the Ages – the Watcher has been referred to as a manipulator by Chibueze. It can see through small blue gems, which a servant of Louhi (who has some pact with the Watcher) was placing in the anomaly realm. The Watcher makes pacts with people.

I'm starting to have a bit of a think about that - I won't go into great detail as I'm far from forming a solid plan. A few thoughts, though, in no particular order, just in case they start someone else thinking about something helpful.

In an ideal world I'd like Rachane to weaken Certizal and Salas, and then be destroyed. I doubt it could kill them as they are deities from Primus (although not Primal deities) and thus probably rank a bit higher in whatever passes for the divine order of my-god-is-bigger-than-your-god.

I don't know how Rachane can be destroyed - of those divinities, the only one that has been destroyed has been destroyed by Rachane. But Rachane is a parasite - it can't win completely or it dies - had their plane not been destroyed (the act of its destruction shattering it and allowing the others access to the rest of the exostance), presumably Rachanne would have either been kept at bay by the others, or eventually eaten everything and starved away to nothing. That is now not an option unless we can trap it. Whilst killing gods is a little above our pay grade, trapping one until it starves itself out of existence sounds like a possible avenue to investigate.

There are two things we know that Rachane wants, we won't use one of them, and to involve Chisomo and Chibueze is a risk to them that they may not be happy taking. Likewise I would be unhappy with a risk to any of our Primal gods, especially if we can come up with a better way that might weaken SOFE / Salas.

The problem with any attempt to get it to go after SOFE / Salas is that Louhi is a servant of SOFE, was working for Salas and has a pact with Rachane and the Watcher. But, looking at it the other way, Louhi has a link to all of those entities. If I am right and he is an angel (lets say, although the precise term is no doubt different) of SOFE, then SOFE has some power invested in him. It will at the least irritate it when Louhi dies. Louhi is also linked to Salas in so far as he is the anchor to the ritual chamber containing the echoes of Salas' power, used to cast the Rite of the Ocean's Claim.

It feels to me that there is something clever to be done to enable us to weaken Salas and SOFE, kill Louhi and then trap Rachane so it starves. A divine Haven could play a role, and we have one, we can move people around (tricky with gods, I know), and there are other resources we have available. We know what Louhi wants - to kill the other 3 and consume their power (and no prizes for guessing where he learned that trick), so we can probably lure him somewhere. To kill Louhi, we'd need to break whatever pact he has with the Watcher (Cleophas refers to her agent having a written pact, so it seems likely there is a physical object involved), and we'd need to know we wouldn't cause chaos by destroying the anchor at the wrong time. On the other hand, maybe Louhi having a pact could help - if we know we can't accidentally kill him, that again give sus options. Its all very complicated and I may be being uncharacteristically optimistic, but a clever use of the map, and a good plan, and I am sure there is something that could be done. I'll have a bit more of a think on it, this is all really writing as I think.

So, I have this crazy idea... what if Rachane could be changed, be 'redeemed' in some fashion, so that instead of feeding by corrupting, it feeds by redeeming? It would become the perfect counter to Certizal, literally eating his work apart. I'm not sure if it something immediately practical, but I just wonder if it is possible...

Certainly a bit of a mad idea, but just trying to think a bit differently.

In essence, and unsurprisingly, the answer is that their personal involvement is not possible. However they approve of what you are trying to do, and have given me some information to pass on which I think will be very useful to you.

Firstly, regarding your potential plans. They think it is technically possible that the Devourer could consume SoFE and/or Salas. A great deal of emphasis on the 'technically'. Realistically it is unlikely. The two of them are extremely powerful deities, even without having been victorious in Keys and even with the work that has been done to weaken SoFE in the past years. Being from Primus also makes them inherently more powerful, as is the nature of things, though no one is certain of the origins of Salas of the Deep. You could feed the Devourer pieces of them, but first you would need to hunt them down - hunting them down would also be an issue for the Devourer if you wanted Him to consume them Himself.

(Separate to this and as theories of my own - the consumption of a Primal Deity may also have its own issues, or be impossible - would the mantle be consumed, along with the 'being'? Is it possible to destroy a Primal Mantle? Partial consumption is far more possible.)

Regarding the Pantheon as a whole: these seven Gods are genuinely Divine - Divine in the truest sense of the word. But They have no worshippers. This makes as I am sure you are aware very little sense, so there is obviously something we do not know. This also raises the question of how one would influence Them - would you just need to find some worshippers, and that would do it? It is hard to say without knowing Their true natures.

I was also asked to remind you 'not to play with fire bigger than you can handle', though given that is rather what mercenaries are for I fully expect for you to ignore that. I certainly would.

Inquisitor Wilton

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- RebeccaPS: My inbox is full on purpose. Please email stantz[at]gmail[dot]com if you need to get hold of me.PPS: I just published my debut novel (:O) - check it out here if you like historical fantasy! - https://goo.gl/9YFgyL

So it may be a bit obvious, but I'd hate not to tell everyone just in case. But the final words said to me before I was booted back into the 'nacht and Primus was from my lord saying "Beware the echoes of the Word".

Again may seem an obvious thing to you all but considering the source thought it's a message to pass on.

ps. sorry Liara if my closing message to you was frustrating, I could have been a bit more respectful about people dying. But I was just a bloke, I'd been dead for a long while. It was only the angels that kept my soul and body intact, and that kind of death is the only chance I get to see my home. So I was a bit excited to get my refrain. All we really have is cycles and refrains.

Lucian

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Attention randomly typing monkeys. The reply button does not dispense bananas. That is all.

I'm glad you're back, and don't worry about being disrespectful. Its your own death, not like you were making light of anyone else's, and our deaths are one of those few things we get that are absolutely ours. If you ever want to talk about the cycles and refrains, I'd be happy to listen, although there'd probably need to be beer involved.

I'll listen to guidance from Talthar, he's saved my life on at least one occasion, so that's fair enough. Echoes of the Word could mean a lot of things. Certizal is supposed to be the Shadow of the First Evil, which is Corruption - I think that's part of the Creator / Destroyer mythos, but I'm not an expert on such things. They use Words a lot, I think Destruction is one of the Words of Creation, or something like that. But you'd probably want to ask one of the more sensible Michaeleans to be certain. But I don't think its that, because they are specifically referenced in information we have.

The Echoes of the Word are described in the words that Cleophas discovered, which I think were imparted to some Amlasian individual, if I'm reading the name right, by the Twins, which again I think are Amlasian but I know very little about their traditions apart from how to write a haiku (which I notice now that this is, which pleases me).

seven were born then on the echoes of the word in destruction's wake

That talks about the Echoes of the Word being what birthed the Seven. We ideally need to know more about what happened to their world - that suggests they were born out of destruction. That might also give us a clue as to how they can be gods without worshippers, although they do still have angels and the like. They're getting power from somewhere, after all.

On that note, Inquisitor Wilton talks about trying to kill Primal Deities. This confuses me, because I'm fairly certain that Certizal (as mentioned above) is part of the whole Creation / Destruction thing, not a Primal God. Salas I'm not certain because he is supposed to have stolen the Spiter's power, and the Spiter was the opposite of the Empress in divine terms. My knowledge of what Salas is actually all about is limited to making a close study of his avatar for the half an hour it spent killing me over the Dawn. His purview was "the Deep" and the oceans, and he was envious of and attempted to steal the power of the Green Dragon, but that's all I know. Theo would know, I imagine, or I could probably find out more with a little bit of study.

My apologies, that is my unhelpful wording. I was theorising about Primal Deities being consumed by the Devourer but placing this in the middle of my thoughts about Salas and SoFE made it appear that I was referring to to them. I have corrected the information so that it is clear that I am not.

Whilst no one is entirely certain what Salas of the Deep is precisely (beyond Divine), it is known that his power crosses worlds - or believed that it does, certainly. This would make him quite unlikely to be a Primal Deity.

Inquisitor Wilton

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- RebeccaPS: My inbox is full on purpose. Please email stantz[at]gmail[dot]com if you need to get hold of me.PPS: I just published my debut novel (:O) - check it out here if you like historical fantasy! - https://goo.gl/9YFgyL

Sorry I must have missed the Amlasian part. If you mean the two that created (ish) Amlas, I met them and was a champion of one of them, then I could ask some people I met there who might know more specifics of the creation.

Lucian

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Attention randomly typing monkeys. The reply button does not dispense bananas. That is all.

Sounds good to me. The haiku that refers to the Echoes of the Word was accompanied by a note reading "Words granted to Bayushi Ayumu by the Twins". Cleophas Allockra, who tracked down the fragment, referred to it as prophecy, which given that this has just happened now and hadn't then makes sense.

Is anyone able to scry about what the Echoes of the Word are, and what the Word was (might want to scry for general description not an exact answer on that one)? The Seven were born "On the echoes of the word / in destruction's wake" - did the Word cause the destruction?

I'm a little uneasy about this idea of gods existing without worshippers, because that is not the way the world works here; gods without worshippers become weak and forgotten, or decide to travel back in time to consume their former selves, but either way having no worshippers is bad news for gods. I'd want to know firstly if the Seven are indeed without worshippers, secondly if so how they are able to survive, and third if their presence within Primus is harmful because of that or anything else. I could see us running around rescuing these gods because on the face of it that feels like a good thing to do, and inadvertently causing problems. So if anyone can scry and is having a bored afternoon...

I have arranged to take a look at the tome of words of power (recovered at the dawn) in a few weeks or so's time. I suspect it will take a bit of digging, perhaps more than I can manage (others are very welcome to help), in an effort to try and track down the word that caused it, if it is within the pages of that tome.

My word (pun intended), I didn't imagine that ever seeing the light of day again. Did you have to kill anyone? I suppose at least you're in the right place already if so. I'd very much like to see it.

I suspect your inquiries will be more productive than mine - as the Word was spoken at the moment the world was destroyed, I conducted an experiment involving asking people around me what the first word they would say was, were the world to be being destroyed around them. The results were unanimous, but probably less than helpful.

Thanks for sending that over Lucian, I'll have a closer look later but nothing immediately jumped out at me (other than the observation that there was a lot of looking upon things and weeping). But now I do finally understand why they all keep going on about stabbing themselves, so I've learnt something at any rate.

Dusk, when you get a chance to look at the Tome, perhaps see if Destruction is one of the words and look at the page after? I wondered if its possible that 'in Destruction's wake' might be rather more literal? May be nothing, but won't hurt as a start point.Morgan

Morgan, its an interesting point - I might ask the Church of St Michael which Word follows Destruction in their theology. And Dusk, a beer says you will never get your hands on it before we are done with any need for it.